Future's End

"Future's End" is a two-part episode from the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager, the eighth and ninth of the season and the 50th and 51st overall. "Future's End" made its debut on American television in November 1996 on the UPN network.

Not to be confused with the band Futures End or the DC Comics series The New 52: Futures End.

"Future's End"
Star Trek: Voyager episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 8 & 9
Directed by
Written by
Featured musicJay Chattaway
Cinematography byMarvin V. Rush
Production code150 & 151
Original air date
  • November 6, 1996 (1996-11-06)
  • November 13, 1996 (1996-11-13)
Guest appearance(s)

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Federation starship Voyager during its journey home to Earth, having been stranded tens of thousands of light-years away. In this episode, Voyager is thrown back to Earth in 1996 and must find a way back to the 24th century while making sure they don't cause a disaster in the 29th century in the process.

Plot

Part I

A small ship with a Federation signature emerges from a temporal rift in front of the starship Voyager. Its pilot identifies himself as Captain Braxton (Allan Royal) from the 29th century in the timeship Aeon. He has come to destroy Voyager, believing it to be the cause of a temporal explosion that will wipe out most of the solar system in his time. Voyager fights off Braxton's attack, resulting in Braxton being sent back through the rift. Voyager and its crew are also pulled into the rift and find themselves on Earth in 1996.

Braxton crashes in 1967, where Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) finds Aeon and copies its technology, allowing him to found a company, Chronowerx Industries, and start the micro-computer revolution. In 1996, a young astronomer named Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman) who works at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles detects Voyager in high orbit and assumes it to be extraterrestrial life. Her work is funded by Starling, but against his instructions, she attempts to contact Voyager by transmitting a greeting to it, alarming the crew.[1] The Voyager crew tracks her location to the Observatory and Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, Lt. Tuvok (Tim Russ), and Lt. Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), decide to beam down to Los Angeles. Tuvok and Paris save Robinson from a hitman Starling dispatched to kill her.

Janeway and Chakotay investigate Starling and his business. They identify a homeless man as Captain Braxton, who explains the rise of Starling to them.[1] Ultimately, they learn that Starling's planned attempt to travel to the 29th century using Braxton's timeship will be the true cause for the temporal explosion, because Starling lacks the knowledge needed to properly calibrate the timeship.

Janeway and Chakotay secretly enter Starling's Chronowerx office where they find the Aeon, just as Starling walks in on them. Starling ignores Janeway's warning not to use the timeship and tries to kill them, but the officers are beamed aboard Voyager.[1] When Voyager tries to beam up the timeship, Starling uses his own transporter beam to access Voyager's computer and study its systems, including stealing the Doctor's program from Sickbay.[1] Worse still, Voyager has been sighted and filmed, since the ship had to descend low into Earth's atmosphere to beam Janeway and Chakotay aboard.

Part II

Following Starling's computer attack, Voyager is badly damaged, leaving Paris and Tuvok stranded on Earth with Robinson. Paris convinces her to help by claiming that he and Tuvok are government agents trying to recover highly advanced technology that was stolen by Starling. Robinson, prompted by Paris and Tuvok, arranges to meet Starling at a public park. To keep an eye on the Doctor, Starling equips the Doctor with a piece of 29th-century technology, a "Mobile Holo-Emitter", which allows him to move around without having to rely on fixed emitters.

During the meeting, Chakotay and Torres take a shuttle into Earth's lower atmosphere, planning to abduct Starling and beam him aboard Voyager. Unfortunately, damage taken during the transport forces Chakotay and Torres to crash in the Arizona desert, where they are captured by isolationists. Tuvok and the Doctor, splitting up from Paris and Robinson, are able to rescue them and begin repairs on the shuttle.

Held prisoner on Voyager, Starling admits to Janeway that he intends to travel into the future to steal more advanced technology because he has reached the limit of what he can create by studying the Aeon.[2] Janeway informs him of Captain Braxton's warning about the disaster he will cause, but Starling is too egotistical to believe he can fail. Just when Janeway believes that she has ended Starling's plans, one of his henchmen transports him back to his office. Paris and Robinson arrive there to discover a large truck, which they believe contains the timeship. They pursue the vehicle out of the city, aided by the arrival of the repaired shuttle. Too late, the truck is found to be a decoy, and Starling launches the Aeon, still at the Chronowerx building.[2]

After a last attempt to dissuade Starling, Janeway manually fires a photon torpedo into the Aeon, destroying it and saving the future. A few moments later, an alternative Captain Braxton arrives in another timeship Aeon, explaining that having detected the anomaly of their presence in the past, he has come to return them to their own time at the place they left it. Sadly, he is unwilling to bring them to their Earth, as that would violate the Temporal Prime Directive. Voyager returns to the exact moment they first encountered the Aeon. The Doctor gains more freedom as he keeps the Mobile Holo-Emitter.

Reception

A 1996, newspaper article noted "Future's End" as the best episode yet, noting that it had "much excitement and crackling dialogue."[3]

In 2011, Tor.com included this as one of six episodes of Star Trek: Voyager that are worth re-watching.[4] The Comic Book Resources site listed the futuristic but tiny Aeon, as one of the most powerful Star Trek ships.[5]

In 2014, io9 ranked "Future's End" as the 93rd best episode of Star Trek in their list of the top 100 Star Trek episodes.[6]

In 2015, a Star Trek: Voyager binge-watching guide by W.I.R.E.D. suggested this episode could not be skipped.[7]

In 2015, SyFy ranked the "Future's End" pair as one of the top ten episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.[8] Star Trek writer Bryan Fuller later said Sarah Silverman was considered as a cast regular starting with Season 3 of Star Trek: Voyager.[9] The filming locations in southern California, USA have also been noted, including Santa Monica Pier, Griffith Observatory, downtown Los Angeles, and Palisades Cliffside Park, etc.[10]

In 2016, "Future's End, Part I" & "Future's End, Part II" were ranked as the 60th greatest Star Trek episodes overall by The Hollywood Reporter.[11] They noted the episode(s) had "plenty of charm" and praised the comedy by the Paris and Tuvok characters.[11] In 2017, ScreenRant ranked "Future's End" as the 7th best time-travel themed episode of Star Trek overall, and praised the storyline and its consequences.[12]

In 2017, Fatherly ranked this episode as one of the top 10 episodes for kids to watch.[13]

Variety magazine noted this for guest starring comedian and actress Sarah Silverman.[14]

In 2017, Den of Geek said that actress-comedian Sarah Silverman was the tenth best guest star on Star Trek: Voyager, for her role of Rain Robinson, 20th century astronomer who encounters the crew of Voyager.[15] Film Daily ranked Sarah Silverman as one of the greatest Star Trek guest stars.[16]

Notes
  • Star Trek writer and producer Bryan Fuller, who began his career on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has stated that Brannon Braga, Voyager's co-executive producer, considered making Sarah Silverman a member of the crew on the basis of her acting in this episode.[17] Braga “liked writing for Silverman and the freshness she brought to the Voyager” show plus the possibilities for a Tom Paris romance with her.[17] In the end, Braga abandoned the idea and instead chose Jeri Ryan to join the crew in season 4 of the show.

See also
  • "Relativity" – the fifth season episode where Voyager again encounters Captain Braxton (portrayed in that episode by Bruce McGill)

References
  1. "Future's End, Part I". Star Trek: Voyager. Season 3. Episode 8. Paramount Television. November 6, 1996. UPN. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  2. "Future's End, Part II". Star Trek: Voyager. Season 3. Episode 9. Paramount Television. November 13, 1996. UPN. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  3. Anthony, Ted (November 9, 1996). The Dispatch "'Star Trek: Voyager' Hits its stride-finally. The Dispatch.
  4. Britt, Ryan (July 14, 2011). "I Like My Coffee Black and My Crew Lost: Six Voyager Episodes Worth Re-Watching". Tor.com. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  5. "Star Trek: The 20 Most Powerful Ships In The Galaxy, Ranked". CBR. December 17, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  6. Anders, Charlie Jane (October 2, 2014). "The Top 100 Star Trek Episodes Of All Time!". io9. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  7. McMillan, Graeme (May 27, 2015). "WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek: Voyager". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  8. Granshaw, Lisa (January 16, 2015). "20 years later: Our top 10 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager". SYFY WIRE. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  9. Caron, Nathalie (December 14, 2012). "REVEALED: Sarah Silverman was almost a Star Trek: Voyager regular". SYFY WIRE.
  10. "Star Trek Voyager - Filming Locations". www.seeing-stars.com.
  11. ""Borderland"/"Cold Station 12"/"The Augments" - 'Star Trek': 100 Greatest Episodes". The Hollywood Reporter.
  12. "Star Trek: 18 Best Time Travel Stories". ScreenRant. December 7, 2016.
  13. "The 10 Best 'Star Trek' Episodes to Watch With Your Kids". Fatherly. October 31, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
  14. Bryant, Jacob (September 2, 2016). "Stars You Didn't Know Were in 'Star Trek'". Variety. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  15. "Star Trek Voyager: 10 Great Guest Performances". Den of Geek. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  16. Roberts, Amy (June 12, 2019). "Tom Hardy in space: The greatest 'Star Trek' guest stars ever". Film Daily. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  17. Pascale, Anthony (April 26, 2011). "Star Trek Voyager Producers Considered Adding Sarah Silverman As Series Regular". TrekMovie.com. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
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